Motorola Mobility Sues Apple Over Patent Infringement

Patents are a serious issue in the tech industry. Any industry, really. And companies will seemingly go out of their way to make sure that the ideas they believe they created are protected. Motorola Mobility has just announced today that they are moving forward with suing Apple over patent infringement. The complaint has been filed with the International Trade Commission (ITC), and alleges that the Apple iPad, iPod Touch ("iTouch"), and some Mac computers are currently infringing on Motorola patents.

The patent infringement case has been filed in the Northern District of Illinois, as well as the Southern District of Forida. Motorola Mobility is putting forward three complaints against Apple, which include 18 different patents, which focus on "early-stage innovations." They cover 802.11, GPRS, WCDMA, wireless email, antenna design, software application management, and proximity sensing.

Put into focus, though, was Apple's MobileMe and App Store, interestingly enough. As Nokia has said in the past, it looks like Motorola is jumping onto the "late to the game" bandwagon, and suggests that because Apple was late to the telecommunications market, and that Motorola put themselves through lengthy negotiations, Apple basically refused to take a license when it apparently needed to. The result, as you can imagine, is this. There should be more information coming soon, so stay tuned -- we imagine that this won't just go away. Check out the full press release below.

Press Release

Motorola Mobility Sues Apple for Patent Infringement

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill., Oct. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today announced that it's subsidiary, Motorola Mobility, Inc., has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that Apple's iPhone, iPad, iTouch and certain Mac computers infringe Motorola patents. Motorola Mobility also filed patent infringement complaints against Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) in the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of Florida.

Overall, Motorola Mobility's three complaints include 18 patents, which relate to early-stage innovations developed by Motorola in key technology areas found on many of Apple's core products and associated services, including MobileMe and the App Store. The Motorola patents include wireless communication technologies, such as WCDMA (3G), GPRS, 802.11 and antenna design, and key smartphone technologies including wireless email, proximity sensing, software application management, location-based services and multi-device synchronization.

Motorola Mobility has requested that the ITC commence an investigation into Apple's use of Motorola's patents and, among other things, issue an Exclusion Order barring Apple's importation of infringing products, prohibiting further sales of infringing products that have already been imported, and halting the marketing, advertising, demonstration and warehousing of inventory for distribution and use of such imported products in the United States. In the District Court actions, Motorola Mobility has requested that Apple cease using Motorola's patented technology and provide compensation for Apple's past infringement.

Kirk Dailey, corporate vice president of intellectual property at Motorola Mobility, said, "Motorola has innovated and patented throughout every cycle of the telecommunications industry evolution, from Motorola's invention of the cell phone to its development of premier smartphone products. We have extensively licensed our industry-leading intellectual property portfolio, consisting of tens of thousands of patents in the U.S. and worldwide. After Apple's late entry into the telecommunications market, we engaged in lengthy negotiations, but Apple has refused to take a license. We had no choice but to file these complaints to halt Apple's continued infringement. Motorola will continue to take all necessary steps to protect its R&D and intellectual property, which are critical to the company's business."

About Motorola

Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications and is focused on advancing the way the world connects. From broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility and public safety solutions to mobile and wireline digital communication devices that provide compelling experiences, Motorola is leading the next wave of innovations that enable people, enterprises and governments to be more connected and more mobile. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) had sales of US $22 billion in 2009. For more information, please visit www.motorola.com.